The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing molds.
Conventionally, computer-aided design (CAD) systems are employed to design molds, which are used to form molded products. A CAD system uses data representing the geometry of a molded product to design a mold in correspondence with the geometry of the molded product. That is, the CAD system generates design data for the mold of the molded product using data representing the finish geometry and dimension of the molded product. A computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) system generates numerical control (NC) data, or process data, from the mold design data generated by the CAD system. An NC apparatus machines a workpiece in accordance with the process data to manufacture a mold.
In the prior art, a designer who designs a mold with a CAD system makes changes and modifications to mold design data, which is generated by the CAD system, based on experience. An operator using a CAM system also makes changes and modifications to the process data, which is generated by the CAM system, based on experience.
The design data and the process data represent the finish geometry of the mold and mold parts, which form the mold. In other words, in the prior art, the designing and manufacturing of a mold are performed based on only geometry information (i.e., design data and process data), which represents the finish geometry of the mold and mold parts. The geometry information does not represent machining information, such as the dimensions of the portions machined and removed from a mold material and the time required for the machining.
Accordingly, in the prior art, the geometry information of a mold is associated with the cutting information. This may result in the CAM system generating erroneous process data. Thus, when manufacturing different molds and mold parts that form the same molded product, the resulting mold and mold parts may have differing portions.
Furthermore, the designing process, which is performed by the CAD system, and the manufacturing process, which is performed by the CAM system, are based on only the geometry of the mold. Thus, the manufacturing process cannot be started until the designing process is completed. This requires enormous time for manufacturing the mold.
The process data generated by a CAM system, the information of mold parts that form a mold (unit information), process information, and the know-how accumulated by a machinist are not managed to be shared. Thus, the final mold may differ depending on the persons involved even when using the same information.
A conventional CAD system does not allow displaying the components of mold by unit. Therefore, it is difficult to check information operator requires such as parts list by unit and the progress.